One-piece joint coupling



Maffei@ 2E, i957 J. R. TREMBLAY ONE-PIECE JOINT COUPLING 5 Sheetsheei; l

Filed July 5, 19674 fil s 2:23

Maxfcl El, E9? J. R. TREMBLAY ONE-PIECE JOINT COUPLING 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 5 l962 Mw@ my 1%? R. TREMBLAY ONE-PIECE JOINT COUPLING 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 July 5,

Filed Www-mgm United States Patent O 3,310,327 ONE-PIECE JOINT COUPLING Joseph Rosaire Tremblay, Trans-Canada Road, St. Romuald, Levis County, Quebec, Canada Filed July 5, 1962, Ser. No. 207,533 3 Claims. (Cl. 287-189.36)

The instant invention relates to a coupling for the assembly and the dismounting of temporary buildings although the use is not strictly limited to such 4a eld as will become obvious after reading the following specification.

The development of new techniques in the construction industry subsequent to the advent of prefabricated material has meant a positive progress for that industry. However, up to now the developments were concerned mostly with facilit-ating the transportation and simplifying the assembly of the materials without regard to disassembling. In certain fields of commercial and industrial activities, it is required that living quarters lbe moved from one location to another, for instance, in mining and forestry exploitations, plant construction and power projects in distant locations, military establishment, etc. It follows that the ease and simplicity with which such establishments may be -assembled is of primary importance. Experience shows that a prefabricated dwelling of the conventtional type can be disassembled only by breaking some of the material and only with the use of an important labour force. It is Well known that many companies involved in forestry, for instance, have given up the idea of the conventional Prefabricated buildings and have gone back to the old practice of lbuilding and assembling the camps on sight an-d thereafter abandonning them at the end of the operations. It was found that this solution was more economical as the saving in labour and transportation more than offset the costs of any recuperated lumber.

Besides, the assembly of prefabricated buildings presents, by itself, a certain complexity either in the interpretation of the drawings which .are often found puzzling by the ordinary working 4man or in the actual assembly which often requires changes in tools for the various operations.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a new joint for prefabricated materials for the construction of living or warehousing quarters or the like that overcome the major disadvantages mentioned above.

A further object of the invention lies in the provision of such a joint which reduces the cost of prefabricated constructions.

Still another object lies in the simplication of the assembly of prefabricated materials and also ydisassembly of such materials in the case of temporary constructions.

The basic idea is to introduce into the construction art a coupling means which is of simple use aud which is also conceived in such a way as to require the use of only one tool so that no nails or screws are necessary for putting up the entire building. The device will hereinafter be called construction coupling or simply coupling.

The new coupling is applicable to inside as well as outside construction materials.

The listing of the above mentioned main objects of the invention should not, of course, constitute a limitation of the uses of such invention which -are applicable to the joining of any members or structures made out of wood, metal or synthetic and laminated materials.

It will `become apparent from the following description that the present invention makes it possible to use construction elements which need not be provi-ded with any connecting means but only with holes, recesses and grooves.

When the construction is completely assembled, none Mice of these joints will actually project out of the walls so that any conventional covering material may be applied directly thereon such as veneer, shingles, etc. y

In the description of the invention, reference will be had to the annexed drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the joint made according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view in elevation and partly in crosssection of the embodiment of FIGURE 1;

FIGURES 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are also views in elevation, partly in cross-section, of various embodiments of the invention;

FIGURE 8 shows a plan view of a joint made according to the invention as applied to two construction elements before whole assembly. f

FIGURE 9 is 4a view similar to that of FIGURE 8 wherein the joint is shown completely assembled;

FIGURE 10 is a cross-sectional elevation of two construction elements shown fully assembled with a coupling rnade according to the invention;

FIGURE 1l illustrates, in cross-section elevation, another joint between two construction elements using the coupling of the invention;

FIGURE 12 shows how the coupling structure of the invention may be applied to a grooved-in construction element:

In its simplest form which is that shown in FIGURES l and 2, the coupling consists of a generally llat plate 1 usually made of metal provided with two pins 3 and 5 mounted perpendicular to plate 1 and also, preferably although not necessarily, made of metal. In this particuklar embodiment, the rst pin 3 is cylindrical in cross-section and has a co-axial peg 7 receivable in a hole 9 drilled through plate 1. Pin 3 and peg 7 are securely fastened onto plate 1 by any means such as welding or riveting and preferably such that the top of the peg becomes flush with the surface of plate 1.

As to the second pin 5, it is also cylindrical and is provided, -at the top thereof, with a peg 11 adapted to lit into .a hole 13 through plate 1. It should be noted that peg 11 is axially offset from pin S and is therefore eccentric in relation thereto.

Contrary to peg 7, peg 11 is made to rotate in hole 13 and is retained therein by being riveted to form a bevelled surface 15 adapted to sit on alike bevelled surface at the top of hole 13. Finally, a polygonal Vrecess 17 is provided at the top of peg 11 for the reception of the polygonal head of a screw driver to provide rotation of the eccentric pin 5. It will be understood, of course, that other means may be provided to obtain rotation of pin 5.

In some cases,'it may be found advantageous to have two identical pins such as illustrated in FIGURE 3. It will be noted that in this case, the rst -pin 3 is cylindrical and axially offset from the peg 7 rotatable in the hole 9'. Similarly to pin 5, peg 7 is provided with a polygonal recess 17 for its rotation.

In other cases, it may be found advantageous to have more than two pins and such a case is illustrated in FIG- URE 4. In this instance, it is necessary that at least n-1 -pins be eccentric and rotatable. In the illustration of FIGURE 4, pin 3 is identical to that of FIGURE 2 while the two pins 5 and 5 are rotatable and have a cylindrical body which is eccentric to the pegs 11 and 11.

So far, the eccentric body of the movable pins described in FIGURES 1, 2, 3 and 4 has been said to be cylindrical in form. It should be understood however that other forms of eccentric bodies would be suitable such as prismatic, ellipsoidal, etc.

The above described coupling illustrates that although the distance between the axes of pins 3 and 5 is constant, due to the eccentricity of the pin 5 in relation to its axis of rotation, the distance between the outer surfaces of the pins constantly varies as pin S rotates.

It follows that if the two Vpins 3 and 5 are inserted in suitable .recesses 23 and 25 (FIGURES 8 and 9) of two adjoining construction elements 19 and 29, respectively, rotation of pin will, by action of its eccentric bulging part on the periphery of recess 25, force element 21 in the direction of element 19 and finally in locking abutment therewith.

It may be deducted from the above description that in order to obtain a locking abutment, the shortest distance between recesses 23 and 25 when elements 19 and 21 are in abutment must be slightly larger than the minimum distance that may exist between pins 3 and 5.

Obviously also, the eccentric pin 5 need not be cylindrical in shape.

Without departing from the spirit of the invention, this rotatable pin 5 may have an eccentric portion in the form of a bulge 27 (FIG. 5) at the lower portion of the pin or a bulge 27 (FIG. 6) covering the major portion of the pin 5. Again, the rotatable pin 5 may take on the shape of a troncated cone (FIG. 7), provided it is eccentric to its axis of rotation as illustrated in FIGURE 7, under the circumstances, the receiving recess rnust also be conical in form at least one the side wherein pressure is exerted.

In practice, it will be found advantageous, particularly in the case of a joint between wooden members, to provide recesses 23 and. 25 with metallic rings or sleeves. Similarly, the pins 3 and 5 will advantageously be made of metal so as to reduce wear to a minimum.

In other embodiments of the invention, the coupling of the present invention may be permanently secured or fastened to one of the construction elements either by its fixed pin 3 or by being an integral part of thereof, particularly in the case of metallic materials.

So far, it has been shown that the coupling of the invention is capable of retaining two construction elements 19 and 21 in one direction: the panels of FIG- URE 10, for instance, cannot be separated in the horizontal direction. However, they may be displaced along parallel planes when the coupling is of the type illustrated in FIGURES l, 2, 3 and 4, that is, where the pins 3 and 5 have the shape of right cylinders.

In order to complete the assembly of the construction elements, it is proposed to provide each of the elements 19 and 21 with a groove 29 extending longitudinally of their edges and wherein is inserted a tongue 31 which serves to prevent any vertical displacement of the elements as well as ensure tightness of the joints. In some cases it may be desirable to provide two such grooves in each of the construction elements and two tongues to retain and prevent the elements from moving upwardly in shearing fashion. This is the situation as illustrated in FIGURE 11. It will also be noted that an aperture 33 running lengthwise of the construction elements to be connected is provided for the passage of electrical cables or the like.

FIGURE 12 illustrates the case where the coupling of the invention is located within a recess 35 and out of sight.

It will be understood that tongue 31 may be conveniently replaced by other means capable of doing the same function. Particularly, the tongue may be secured permanently on the edge of one of the two construction elements, the other elements simply having the necessary reception groove 29. Also, in the case of coupling such as illustrated in FIGURES 5, 6 and 7, wherein the receiving recesses 23, 25 are provided either with grooves for the reception of the bulges 27, 27' or are tapered for the reception of the frusto-conical pin of FIGURE 7, the tongue 31 may be dispensed with.

From the above description, it can be seen that the main objects of the invention may be obtained therewith that is, the ease with which prefabricated constructions may be dismounted. It is only necessary, for disassembling, to rotate the eccentric pins in reverse direction thus moving the two connected members apart then remove the coupling altogether.

I claim:

1. In a prefabricated building, a structural joint therefore comprising: two construction elements having adjacent edges facing one another and having each a substantially at surface, said surfaces being in alignment; said construction elements each having a groove cut-out along said edges; said grooves cooperating with each other to define a recess overlapping said elements, and each element further having a hole therethrough opening into the corresponding groove; a substantially at plate mounted in said recess having a thickness such that the outer surface thereof is substantially ush with said surfaces of said elements; a rst pin secured to said plate substantially normal thereto and received in one of said holes; a second pin having a cylindrical portion rotatably tting into a circular aperture through` said plate and registering into the other of said holes; said second pin having a further portion axially offset from the cylindrical portion; the spacing of said holes in the construction elements being so chosen as to result in movement thereof toward and away from one another when said offset portion is rotated and means on said second pin ush with said surfaces for cooperation with a tool separate from said coupling to cause rotation of said second pin; said plate and said rst and second pins forming a one-piece coupler.

2. A joint as claimed in claim 1, wherein said axially offset portion is also cylindrical.

3. A joint as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rst pin is rotatably mounted on said plate and has a portion at least which is eccentric.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 215,348 5/1879 Gregg 287-20925 2,722,294 11/1955 Lagaard ss-ix FOREIGN PATENTS i 970,627 6/1950 France.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

RICHARD W. COOKE, IR., Examiner.

I. D. LISTER, R. S. VERMUT, Assistant Examiners. 

1. IN A PREFABRICATED BUILDING, A STRUCTURAL JOINT THEREFORE COMPRISING: TWO CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS HAVING ADJACENT EDGES FACING ONE ANOTHER AND HAVING EACH A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT SURFACE, SAID SURFACES BEING IN ALIGNMENT; SAID CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS EACH HAVING A GROOVE CUT-OUT ALONG SAID EGES; SAID GROOVES COOPERATING WITH EACH OTHER TO DEFINE A RECESS OVERLAPPING SAID ELEMENTS, AND EACH ELEMENT FURTHER HAVING A HOLE THERETHROUGH OPENING INTO THE CORRESPONDING GROOVE; A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT PLATE MOUNTED IN SAID RECESS HAVING A THICKNESS SUCH THAT THE OUTER SURFACE THEREOF IS SUBSTANTIALLY FLUSH WITH SAID SURFACES OF SAID ELEMENTS; A FIRST PIN SECURED TO SAID PLATE SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL THERETO AND RECEIVED IN ONE OF SAID HOLES; A SECOND PIN HAVING A CYLINDRICAL PORTION ROTATABLY FITTING INTO A CIRCULAR APERTURE THROUGH SAID PLATE AND REGISTERING INTO THE OTHER OF SAID HOLES; SAID SECOND PIN HAVING A FURTHER PORTION AXIALLY OFFSET FROM THE CYLINDRICAL PORTION; THE SPACING OF SAID HOLES IN THE CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS BEING SO CHOSEN AS TO RESULT IN MOVEMENT THEROF TOWARD AND AWAY FROM ONE ANOTHER WHEN SAID OFFSET PORTION IS ROTATED AND MEANS ON SAID SECOND PIN FLUSH WITH SAID SURFACES FOR COOPERATION WITH A TOOL SEPARATE FROM SAID COUPLING TO CAUSE ROTATION OF SAID SECOND PIN; SAID PLATE AND SAID FIRST AND SECOND PINS FORMING A ONE-PIECE COUPLER. 